Drive shafts with flexible joints for non-linear shaft component orientation are well known in the art. It is not uncommon to find a drive shaft having one or more flexible joints often referred to as a universal joint, Cardon joint or a Hooke's joint. This allows for the drive shaft to move relative to a driving or a driven element and to permit shaft portions to be out of coaxial alignment, i.e., set at an angle relative to one another and still permit rotation of a driven element by a driving element. Such drive shafts can be found on automobiles and trucks to drive the differential, front wheel drives that have constant velocity (CV) joints, in machines, lawn mowers and the like. Some jointed drive shafts are used to connect a driving element, for example, an electric motor to a driven element for testing of the driven element for various factors such as vibration, torque requirements and the like.
During the testing of a driven element, it is oftentimes desirable to eliminate noise from the system in order to obtain more accurate sensor readings. Oftentimes this is done by subtracting the noise of the drive system out of the total noise to obtain the noise or other measurements from the driven element. Additionally, audible noise, i.e., noise that can be heard by humans or other animals, can also be generated which in some environments can, when added to other noise, lead to objectionable noise levels including noise levels in excess of those permitted by government regulation. Thus, noise can generate at least two types of problems, readings from sensors and the audible sound level in a given environment.
Many types of joints between drive shaft segments are known. For example, the standard universal joint used in automobile drive shafts (a double gimble construction), bellows joint, elastomeric joints, Oldham joints, Waldron couplings and the like. While these joints have been used successfully in many applications, there is a need for their improvement in flexible joints to reduce noise while still maintaining the flexibility of such joints.
Thus, there is a need for an improved flexible drive joint to connect drive shaft components together.